Government Notification to be issued after cabinet consent to Seventh Pay Commission recommendations
The central cabinet is expected to give its approval to the recommendations made by the Seventh Pay Commission today. Appropriate Government gazette notification will be issued as soon as the cabinet gives its clearance.
News reports continue to surface, based on the statements made by Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa. A PTI, report widely quoted in all the leading newspapers, has confirmed it. Prasar Bharati website said that the issues will be discussed today.
All the trade unions of the Central Government employees have united under the banner of NJCA (National Joint Council of Action) and are all set to go on an indefinite strike from 11.07.2016 onwards. The NJCA will also see participation of the Railway, Defence, and Postal employees’ unions. The centre is extremely unconformable with the fact that the Railway employees too have joined the indefinite strike.
Although there are multiple points, the employees are particular about the revision of minimum wages. The Sixth Pay Commission had fixed the minimum wages at Rs. 7,000. The Seventh Pay Commission had recommended that it be increased to Rs. 18,000. The very crucial Fitment Factor depends on the calculation of the minimum wages.
The Seventh Pay Commission had recommended to adopt a uniform Fitment Factor of 2.57 to not only fixed the minimum and starting wages for newly recruited Central Government employees, but also to calculate the same process of basic pay revisions to the existing employees with the help of Pay Matrix Table.
For example, the Seventh Pay Commission’s revised minimum wages of Rs. 18,000 was arrived at by 7000 x 2.57 = 17,990.
If a Central Government employee received 10,000 (basic pay) + 12,500 (Dearness Allowance) = Rs. 22,500 per month, then, as per the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations, his revised salary would be as follows:
Current salary: Rs. 10,000 + 125% DA = Rs. 22,500
Seventh Pay Commission recommendations: 10,000 + 12,500 + 3200 = Rs. 25,700 (according to the Pay Matrix Table, it will be fixed as Rs. 26,000; but this hike is not applicable to all). The additional amount is a mere Rs.3200. This is calculated easily with the 2.57 Fitment Factor.
If the government decides to increase the minimum wages to Rs. 19,000 instead, the Fitment Factor will be calculated as 2.7. In the event of 20,000, the Fitment Factor will be 2.85. The Fitment Factor will be calculated as 3 if the minimum wages are increased to Rs. 21,000.
The Pay Matrix table was created based on the new minimum wages and Fitment Factor. If the basic salaries are increased, the Fitment Factor and Pay Matrix table will also be changed. Since all of them are closely interlinked with each other, the curiosity to know about them runs very high.
The answers to all these questions will soon be available!